After speculation that the US Federal Reserve would rein in its asset-purchasing program earlier than anticipated, Western investors began exiting gold-back exchanged-traded funds (ETFs) in record numbers, highlighted by $8.7 billion in net outflows during April.

Gold investors will recall there was a surge in bullion buying when the price crashed in mid-April. We saw less of this with the June decline, though global investment demand has still been stronger than what was seen in 2012.